The ending of Boots was a bit ambiguous on Sullivan’s ending, but ultimately elements of what happened would have gotten out and there likely would have been gossip about the NCIS investigation.
With all that in mind, how do you think Maitra would react when he found out some or all of what went down with Sullivan?
Hello hello :) Thank you so much for sending this excellent question and for being interested in my personal opinion - I'm already excited to answer and needed a bit of spare time for this :D
My first, spontaneous opinion is: He would be surprised at first, saying things like "Sullivan? Never would have guessed that..." but then remembering that he worked out with that "Wilkinson guy". I'm pretty sure he would be disgusted by Sullivan, feeling betrayed ("I saved his life!") and incredulous and completely turn his back on him, not wanting to think of him anymore. I thought about this opinion after reading a few fanfictions, where Maitra turns out to be a cool guy and Sullivan's friend - but no, I stand with my opinion.
With your question in mind, I watched a few clips from Boots, trying to pin down where my impression on Maitra being a homophobic asshole came from.
One point is the way he watches Sullivan, when they clean their guns on Guam and Sullivan sings "We are the champions". Maitra's expression looks...disgusted. Incredulous. Testing. Also the whole way he is talking about the subject, choosing his words and tone. The way he says "You could get the wrong idea...". It sounds like a threat, like a hissed warning. There's no warm, caring tone. No "Hey Sully, people are talking - please watch out, maybe you should not hang out with Wilkinson!" If it was phrased like that, I would probably think different.
Also how Maitra says after the wedding about reporting Wilkinson: "Just because he's an officer he thinks he can get away with it." - This tells me that Maitra believes in the rules, think they're right and good. He doesn't care about the person he reported. He was just doing his job, following orders, doing the right thing. And he would feel exactly the same, if Sullivan got arrested. Like "serves him right for disobeying the laws".
I really think their "friendship" is a bond formed by Sullivan's loneliness and held together by the awful things they must've went through together (Sullivan's "I saved his life and he saved mine" - this surely bound them together). But this bond is superficial. The fact that Maitra says "Motherfucker! Never telling me shit!" tells a lot about their relationship. Could be that this was only directed at Sullivan's love life, but it could also mean that Sullivan never tells him ANY personal stuff.
Sullivan was invited to Maitra's wedding, which shows some kind of personal bond, yes - but there were many other Marines as well, Sullivan is not the only one. Sullivan cracked this joke about Maitra being a "prick" at boot camp - but I don't think it was a joke. I can imagine him very well being a prick - like Slovacek in the first 3 episodes. But maybe Sullivan, being a scrawny, underweight kid in boot camp, somehow managed to bond with him. Or maybe their "friendship" only formed after boot camp, when they went to war.
Anyway - TL;DR: I think their "friendship" is no friendship at all and that Maitra would visit Sullivan in jail, only to spit him in the face.
THANK YOU for this amazing question, I had so much fun thinking about it and thinking about how I got this opinion!! :) I really love getting food for thought about this banger of a show.
What do you think about Maitra? How do YOU think he would react? Let me know please, I'm curious :) (Question goes to you but also everyone else reading this).
